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"A human being should be able to change a
diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a
building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone,
comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone,
solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a
computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly.
Specialization is for insects." (Robert A. Heinlein)

Saturday, 15 July 2017

Just
after I installed the Raspberry Pi 3 as home
server I promised myself I would have destined the old board to
more “experimental” experiences. As soon as I got some fee time I
so decided to explore Raspberry gaming capabilities. I'm far from
being a gamer today but I spent some time playing computer games when
I was younger, during the “Commodore Amiga age”.

RetroPie

RetroPie
is a Raspberry Pi distribution, based on Raspbian,
specialised on making the Raspberry a full featured gaming machine.
RetroPie image is provided with a great variety of emulation
software, a graphics user interface, gaming control support and a
configuration program to setup most of its options without the need
of keyboard and mouse. Among its features RetroPie allows to download
and install optional modules supporting things like media server
software and open source games.

Parts
list

Before
starting to install I collected the required hardware: The Raspberry
Pi, of course, a 8GB USB disk I had available, a wireless USB adapter
I already
used with the Raspberry and a cheap wireless keyboard I bought
during a surplus fair. Last but not least by bedroom TV was going to
be used as monitor. The wireless keyboard has been the only thing I
bought with this project in mind.